China adds international flights after relaxing Covid-19 controls
- Six new Moscow and St Petersburg routes start operating this month, while more airlines will serve the Philippines, according to embassies
- The announcements come as Beijing cuts quarantine in half and loosens visa rules
China eases quarantine for overseas arrivals based on ‘lessons learned’
This is the latest in a string of announcements by Chinese embassies and airlines about resuming or opening more international routes after the country relaxed its Covid-19 controls last week, cutting the length of quarantine in half for inbound arrivals.
In March 2020, the Civil Aviation Administration of China restricted both foreign and Chinese carriers to just one weekly flight per country via a single route. This policy, known as the “five one” policy, caused more than 100 domestic and foreign airlines to cut international flights in and out of China.
The rules began to relax earlier this year as China sought to fine-tune its Covid-19 control rules in response to the Omicron variant, which has a shorter incubation period.
Under last week’s policy change, the quarantine period for inbound travellers was halved to seven days in a government-arranged quarantine facility followed by three days of home health monitoring.
China’s civil aviation authorities announced last month that more international flights would be allowed as part of a larger plan to revive the economy.
Some foreign carriers resumed international flights to China last month. Air New Zealand started operating its weekly flight between Shanghai and Auckland in late June. Delta Air resumed flights between Shanghai and Seattle in June and will resume its route between Detroit and Shanghai this month.
Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province in southwestern China, will resume six international flights in July, and at least seven more international flights will depart from Beijing.
China Southern Airlines announced plans to resume seven routes starting in June, with total weekly international flights rising to 48 from 36.
“These new flights showed that China has cancelled the ‘five one’ policy that has been implemented for two years to some extent,” said Xiong Wei, an expert with the Civil Aviation Resource Net website.
China has also relaxed visa restrictions in recent weeks. Foreigners seeking a Chinese employment visa are no longer required to provide a hard-to-obtain invitation letter issued by local authorities, and the country will resume issuing visas for visiting Chinese family members or foreigners with permanent residence in the mainland.